Low ammonia, high nitrite, no nitrate - help please

[monkeh]

I've had my tank (inherited with old filter media from previous owners) for about 3 weeks. Did a water check today and got these stats:

Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite 2
PH 7.6
Nitrate 0

I'm assuming that a 25-50% water change is necessary to bring the nitrite down. does this look like a normal part of the cycling process or am i doing something wrong?

 

[Skudo09]

Are you doing a fishless cycle of do you have aquatic life in the tank? It looks that there is bacteria present converting ammonia to nitrite but not yet a presence of bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate. Give it more time. You will eventually start to see nitrate appear and nitrite will go down.

 

[monkeh]

Thanks for replying so fast. There are two axolotls in the tank - I would've preferred to cycle it without them in there but circumstances didn't really allow for it. Should I change some of the water or will this disturb the process?

 

[monkeh]

I did a 25% water change yesterday and the levels this evening are

Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite 1
Nitrate 40

I suspect I may have done the nitrate test wrong yesterday hence the 0. How should I proceed from here? Should I keep changing the water until the nitrite comes right down?

 

[Skudo09]

the nitrite is still far too high to keep your axolotls in the tank. You really need to get the nitrite down to 0.25ppm. So yes do water changes (won't affect the cycling process) every day and test every day to make sure the levels are all low. The nitrate is just on the highest end considered safe for axolotls so it is best to try to keep the nitrate a bit lower as well. The problem now is the axolotls have been exposed to very high levels of nitrite. It would be best to remove the axolotls and place them in a tub of fresh, cool, dechloriinated water (with 100% water changes of the tub daily) and continue the cycling process using the fishless method or until you can get the nitrite down to a safe level.

 

[monkeh]

thanks for the advice. I'll need to get a decent sized tub for the two of them. Hope to get the levels down soon.

 

[monkeh]

so the good news is my ammonia and nitrite are now down to 0. My nitrate is at 80, which I understand is on the high side. If I do a partial water change to bring this down, will it disturb the ammonia and nitrite levels at all?

 

[Skudo09]

Yes do a water change to bring the nitrate level down. You may need to do a couple to bring it down to a safe level (below 40ppm). Your tank is cycled . Make sure you dechlorinate any fresh water you add. Your ammonia and nitrite levels should remain at zero in a cycled tank and water changes won't affect that.

 

[dannyyyallenn]

If you don't already use this, I would suggest a bacterial supplement to add to the water. It sounds like the culture you currently have still needs help getting established. I would also suggest adding a lot of plants. Nitrosomonas bacteria are what break down ammonia into nitrite. Then you also need nitrobacter to then break that down to nitrate. Plants use nitrate as a kind of fertilizer, so if you have a lot of them, you can keep your nitrate low or at zero. So it sounds basically like there's an unbalance of bacteria in your tank that are breaking stuff down in weird patterns. A supplement culture will help stabilize your water. You can buy one at a local fish store usually. Also, if you don't have a gravel or porous substrate, the bacteria may have a little more trouble establishing so that could be another reason to get that supplement. Certainly keep regularly monitoring your water levels to see how its going.